To make up for having fallen behind with my reviews, I have a real treat for you tonight!
For the theme I'll be using for the next few days, I'll be looking at newer classics, relatively new (As in, within the last 18 years or so) Christmas movies and TV specials that I think either already have made their mark as Christmas classics, or otherwise sorely deserve to do so. First up is the stopmotion masterpiece 'The Nightmare Before Christmas.' Made in 1993, many people mistakenly believe it was directed by Tim Burton; It was actually directed by Henry Selick (Who would go on to direct other well- received stopmotion films such as 'James & the Giant Peach' and 'Coraline'), with Burton acting as the writer/ producer for it. For a while after it premiered, people started to forget about it, but it began experiencing a huge resurge in popularity starting about 10 years ago, and while this has had the unfortunate side effect of causing emo kids worldwide to claim this movie as their own even though it's not really an emo film at all (Aside from the dark imagery, it has an uplifting story and a VERY happy ending, both things which are kind of antithetical to emos' views on life), it has also enabled 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' to easily be deemed a Christmas classic by the moviegoing public.
Some people would say it is more of a Halloween movie than a Christmas one, but I must disagree: It's only Halloween for the first 10 minutes or so of it, then it rapidly switches to anticipation of Christmas, and the film ends on Christmas Day. Hence, it's a Christmas movie to me.
In this movie, the sort of "Mythology" is that in a clearing in the middle of the woods, there is a set of trees decorated with the symbols of various holidays; Each acts as a kind of dimensional gateway to a whole huge town/ world centered around that particular holiday, which is where those holidays apparently came from.
In Halloweentown, the local hero is skeleton man Jack Skellington (Speaking voice of Chris Sarandon, singing voice of Danny Elfman), the Pumpkin King of Halloween. However, on this particular Halloween night when the story begins, Jack has grown quite tired of the same old thing year after year, and is feeling very depressed about it. While walking through the woods, he comes across the clearing with the trees that are gateways to the holiday lands, and is sucked into the one that leads to Christmastown (Which looks exactly like how many Santa- themed Christmas movies portray the North Pole).
He is amazed and fascinated at the beauty, color, and life he finds down there, and believes that could be what he had felt was missing from his life. He figures that the people of Halloweentown should be introduced to what Christmas is like. In his enthusiasm, however, he goes overboard in that regard, seeking to temporarily take over Santa's position in Christmas to let St. Nick take a "Vacation." Jack hires three mischievous and slightly psychotic young trick or treaters named Lock, Shock and Barrel to sneak into Christmastown and kidnap Santa (Or, as everyone in Halloweentown calls him, “Sandy Clawsâ€), thinking that they'll take good care of him and then release him after Christmas. However, the three of them are secretly planning to feed Santa to the film’s main villain Oogie Boogie (Voice of Ken Page, who was part of the original cast of ‘Cats’ and puts his booming voice to good use here with the awesome villain song ‘Oogie Boogie Man’), a monster made of burlap who’s filled with bugs and has a gambling obsession.
While all this is going on, Sally (Voice of Catherine O’Hara), a living rag doll who carries a torch for Jack and constantly desires independence from her mad scientist creator/ father figure, soon becomes afraid that Jack’s dream may turn into a nightmare for everyone involved. She initially tries to talk him out of it, then tries to sabotage his Christmas Eve flight by causing Halloweentown to be flooded with fog, but all to no avail. Jack begins delivering creepy, Halloween- esque presents to the children of the world that terrorize everybody, so much so that the military is called in to stop him, and shoot down Jack’s sleigh, nearly killing him.
Jack realizes that he was wrong to try and take over someone else’s holiday, and regains his excitement with Halloween. In the meantime, though, he has to set things right with Christmas, so he rescues Santa and Sally (Who had been captured by Oogie in an ill- fated attempt to free Santa) from being eaten by Oogie. In the end, Santa not only fixes Christmas, he gives everyone in Halloweentown a special gift that they’ll remember fondly for years to come, while Jack and Sally end up together as we knew they would.
Looking at ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’ about the only problem I can see is that they should have done more with Oogie Boogie. Even though he’s the main villain of the film (And a darn good one at that, from what we see of him; He's menacing, funny, and as I said, his song rules), he doesn’t really appear until the second half. Also, although the stopmotion is mostly quite good, there’s a scene in which you can clearly see the strings on a bat flying towards the camera.
I have always adored this movie. When I was a kid, I saw it so often I had the dialogue memorized (And yet, even watching it now, I noticed for the first time a couple things I’d never seen before). There’s just so much to like about it. The stopmotion animation looks beautiful in terms of how the characters move and interact with each other.
It has plenty of funny moments. One which sticks out (And says a lot about politicians in general) is early on when Halloweentown’s literally two- faced Mayor goes to see Jack to help plan for next year’s Halloween, is dismayed when Jack doesn’t come to the door, and calls out “Jack, please! I’m only an elected official here, I can’t make decisions by myself!†What’s more, the showdown between Jack and Oogie Boogie in the climax is quite intense and exciting to watch even now.
Danny Elfman (Always one of my all- time favorite movie composers) really outdoes himself with the music. The instrumental parts are always great and fitting, and I cannot speak highly enough of the songs. The songs offer a very nice variety in terms of mood, pitch, and style, from sad and somber (i.e. ‘Sally’s Song,’ in which the poor ragdoll laments her loneliness and how scared she is about what may happen to Jack), to upbeat and catchy (i.e. Jack’s song ‘What’s This?’, upon first discovering Christmastown), to creepy and disturbing (i.e. ‘Oogie Boogie Man,’ and Lock, Shock, and Barrel’s song ‘Kidnap the Sandy Claws’)
The characters themselves (Especially Halloweentown’s residents) look wonderful and original, with their own unique personalities. Jack Skellington is quite a likable protagonist. You can tell all throughout how well- intentioned he is even as things fall apart around him, and find yourself wanting to see him achieve the satisfaction that’s always just out of his reach until the end. Sally is also a character that’s easy to sympathize with and pity. Between how cruelly her creator/ father treats her, and how for 90% of the movie Jack never notices how much she cares for him, it would be pretty much impossible NOT to feel bad for her, or inwardly rejoice when things finally come together well for her in the film's end.
And so, there you have ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’ an amazing film which fully deserves the newfound cult classic status it now has. See you tomorrow!
